kwmlondon

Really? That's interesting. I didn't know that.

Well at the rate the price is going down in 20 years it’ll be a bargain!

How you getting on with the preamp? Do you use the active much? It there a passive option?

That looks tasty!

Yeah…. It’s not been in the hands of a luthier has it? I guess someone saw that mint ones were worth a fair bit and thought they’d try their luck.

Someone has hacked this poor thing about something rotten... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126955895530?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2Kavy7ytQ9W&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=KfK81-euT2O&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY "...looks ROUGH ...but plays & sounds just FINE !" It does, indeed, look ROUGH! Blimey, it's had quite the life and the routing job is so bad I'd have thought it was my work if I didn't know better. Having said all that... if I was into 4-string basses I'd possibly consider this. It's nice to have a bass you don't feel worried about getting the odd bump or scratch.

Well, a very nice man from the basschat came around and played my Combustion to a standard I don't think it's ever been played before and bought it and took it away. I reached out to Bass Direct and begged them to plead with Dingwall to build my bass now I was without a fanned-fret bass and apparrently they felt sorry for me and are making the body this week. Hurray! The idea was I'd have it for Christmas but now I'll be happy with NBD before Easter!!!!

I’d had a very big glass of wine…. When I wrote that

I've never played a CS bass. I get your point about USA basses - one of the nicest basses I owned as a FMT USA Pro Jazz that looked, sounded and played incredibly. Except the awful dead spots. Honestly, if the bass has been garbage I'd not have cared but it was sublime except for the C 3rd fret on the 3rd string being way quieter than all the others! Anyway. Nice things are nice and if you can afford even nicer enjoy it. Never tried a quad cortex - I find a tone control a bit confusing when I'm playing a gig, god knows how I'd cope with a QC. AND when practising I know I'd just go down a knob-twidding rabbit hole instead of playing the bass. I'm a weak, stupid man.

If you'd said pristine vintage basses and guitars, I'd be with you. If you're earning a salary in the hundreds of thousands why settle for a copy, just buy the real thing. To my mind, the CS instruments are way to have a guitar or bass that is 99% of the way to being a vintage, collectable and the kind of thing a pro would rather take on tour than a 60 year old, probably irreplacable instrument.

Installed a new loom from KiOgon over the weekend and it was up to the usual high standard and the comms and service top notch. I did make a mistake though. I forgot to tell him that it was going in a slightly non-standard layout so I needed to do some soldering but that's totally on me. It's worth mentioning for anyone getting a loom - if it's not going in a standard J or P bass give John all the details and he'll make sure it's right. I'll know for next time!

I 100% agree and I can imagine speccing out a bass and then finding aspects of it you want to tweak - the way components work together can be impossible to predict so swapping out pickups or preamp is part of a process. I just think adding an active circuit isn't something you do to fix a bass you don't like - it's changing the nature of the instrument. Sure, if you have a bass that plays great and you want an active bass instead then fine, but the fact the person spent all that money on a CS then changed the pickups and decided and active circuit then sold it says that they didn't really want a CS vintage bass. I don't disapprove or anything, I'm just confused.

But …but … is it just me misunderstanding but why would someone buy a custom shop instrument, not like it and think they were going to make it ‘better’ by adding a preamp? If they swapped out the pickups I’d understand- it’s not about perfection it’s about making all the parts do what you want. But putting a preamp in is changing the whole nature of the bass. It makes me thing the buyer has no idea what they want.

I have started singing.. Ebanol and iverol live together in perfect Cuprinol side by side on ibanez fretboard oh lord why can’t we?

It's all about what you can trademark. I guess Fender didn't take the threat from copies seriously when they were cheap and bad - they gave people a taste for the guitar and aspire to a Fender one day. The lawsuits started flying when Japanese manufacturers started making products better than the origina and they could no longer own the Stra, Tele, Precision or Jazz shapes as they were ubiqutous, but the scroll headstock was a feature they could control. Must have been an interesteding meeting when they decided they'd be better off licensing out the Fender name and just take a percentage - amazing how quickly a knock-off copy becomes a MIJ. I'm sure there are lots of lessons here.

I just wonder if Sire have a manufacturing system better suited to smaller runs - they're getting more and more niche with their instruments they must have a setup where they don't need to sell such huge numbers but can still turn a profit. I'm not an expert, but it'd be interesting to see how the whole supply chain works for the different companies.

I think that there is a consistent markt for Strats, Teles, Precisions, Jazz etc. Stuff like the paranormal series will have a market, but much smaller and once the people who want one have bought one there's no ongoing demand. Smaller makers can do well making niche products but Fender's business plan is built on big numbers so it makes sense for them to do the odd special edition or limited range and then move their huge manufacturing capacity back to products they know will sell in big quantities. Bear in mind that if a company gets it wrong that's game over. If you want to see a proper scare story look up the motorcycle manufacturer KTM and their woes through overproduction. https://www.wheelsguru.com/stories/ktm-financial-crisis/#google_vignette

I don't know if it's vanity so much really as just liking nice things. If you can have a really, really decent bass for £1,000 or one that's not much better, objectively, but has been custom-made for you by a builder you like at a cost of £4,000 is that vanity? I'd say no more than paying for antique furniture instead of going to Ikea. Some people will do it for the brag-factor, but lots of people are just really into art deco and are happy to pay for the privilege. One area though where it can really be worth paying more just for the brand is if you think you may not keep the instrument, even second hand. It can be really hard to move a bass on with a lesser-known name on the headstock because people may just not be aware of how good it is, but you can always shift a Fender if you ask the going rate - they are a known quantity.

It's always been diminishing returns though. A £250 bass will be a LOT better than a £125 one. The £500 bass will be a fair bit better than the £250 one but once you get past £1000 the improvements will be smaller. I'm being deliberately sweeping here though - there will be individual instruments that go against this and offer amazing value at a high or low price but I stand by the general point. There seems to be a sweet-spot about £500-750 ish where you can find a lot of manufacturers giving very good value. When I've spent more than that I'm very aware that it's very much because I WANT something rather than being logical about it. There's usually a perfectly good alternative a lot cheaper that does MOST of what the expensive thing does!

I must have misunderstood the person in the store then. My bad.

These look tasty. I had an SR505 - it was a gateway drug to 5-string madness. It was really rich and fruity. I'd love to try one of the higher-end ones.